1. Field of the Invention
The embodiments of the invention generally relate to information search, retrieval and integration.
2. Description of the Related Art
Knowledge workers spend significant time and effort in information interaction to complete every day tasks using conventional applications.
These knowledge workers typically need to switch to, search or invoke other applications to extract information related to a task at hand. A knowledge worker must engage with several applications in order to find and integrate information into the current application. For example, a knowledge worker must write a query to find the information using a search application. After executing the query, the result is then copied and pasted back into the email tool, travel web site or other application originating the task. In many cases the required information must be retrieved from web sites, databases, documents or other repositories. However, different applications and associated interaction mechanisms are typically used to search among the different repositories. Moreover, the format of query results from one application may require further processing before it can be used in the originating application.
For example, a list of customer names may be needed to send email only to customers found on the East Coast. The query results may need to be further constrained by filtering and applying transformations. For example, a query result may need to select only business email addresses in order to be consistent with the input text field of originating application (e.g. To: field in an email application.) In some cases, additional filtering and/or transformational steps may need to be performed by other applications, such as separating email addresses by comma in an email application.
However, these conventional approaches information search and retrieval suffer from a number of deficiencies. For example, conventional systems fail to integrate well with diverse information repositories. The multiple diverse information repositories are likely to require the mastery of a number of diverse interaction mechanisms. Thus, a knowledge worker is likely to be confronted with a different user interface for each repository. The concomitant cognitive load associated with mastering how to perform multiple searches with a number of different user interfaces inhibits fluid interaction and makes integration with everyday web applications difficult and increases the difficulty of reusing task-based context information.
Some conventional systems such as Enso attempt to address these issues by providing a command interpreter that can be launched on the desktop and perform actions on specific commands available within a number of different applications using the system clipboard. Enso also provides some extensibility by allowing users to add new vocabulary of actions. However Enso is limited to launching an application or performing a basic operation with specified parameters on the command line. Command syntax is limited and information is limited to what is provided by the target application.
Thus, a need exists for an easily extensible system for integrating personal information search and interaction into everyday applications on the desktop and web browsers.